Vote for your 2013 Bahrain GP driver of the weekend

Which F1 driver was the best performer during the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend?

Review how each driver got on below and vote for who impressed you the most during the last race weekend.

Bahrain Grand Prix driver-by-driver

Red Bull

Sebastian Vettel – Slipped from second to third at the start but was quick to attack Alonso further around the lap, claiming the place back. He got Rosberg before DRS was activated too. Those two moves gave him the benefit of clear air for much of the rest of the race, and put him on course for win number two.

Mark Webber – Beaten by Vettel in qualifying, then had to take a three-place grid penalty. Pitting early to gain track position meant he had to run long stints later which came back to haunt him at the end of the race. Despite losing grip he fought hard against Hamilton but the Mercedes driver broke his defences on the final lap and Perez took advantage as well. Was later reprimanded for contact with Rosberg at turn two.

Ferrari

Fernando Alonso – Made his usual good start before being pegged back by Vettel. His race was ruined when his DRS jammed open passing Rosberg, then again when he overtook Bianchi. Climbed back into the points but was passed by Perez near the end.

Felipe Massa – Collided with Sutil at the start, then picked up two punctures during the race. Hulkenberg, Sutil and Bottas all passed him in the last six laps.

McLaren

Jenson Button – Was pleased to reach Q3 again but less happy with his tyre wear and even less so with his team mate’s driving. Button helped Perez onto the run-off at turn four but needed to make a fourth stop for tyres which demoted him to tenth.

Sergio Perez – Failed to reach Q3 for the third time in four races. But a great start saw him move up to eighth by lap three. He played hardball with his team mate and crossed the line at times – he was fortunate not to ruin both their races when he tagged Button at turn four. But he came out on top and having conserved his tyres he was able to attack in the final phase, passing Alonso and Webber for sixth.

Lotus

Kimi Raikkonen – Raikkonen admitted his qualifying lap “wasn’t great” – he was promoted to the fourth row by Hamilton’s penalty. He lost further ground when the McLarens passed him on the second lap. But his two-stop strategy lifted him ahead of most of the three-stoppers to finish second behind Vettel.

Romain Grosjean – Trying for a single run in Q2 was his downfall: a mistake at turn 11 caused his elimination. But equipped with a new chassis and plenty of fresh tyres he had his best race of the year so far. He had to make his first pit stop early as a McLaren endplate lodged in his radiator, causing overheating. That meant he couldn’t emulate his team mate in running a two-stop strategy, but he still managed to catch and pass Di Resta for third.

Mercedes

Nico Rosberg – Took pole position but his car seemed better suited to a flying lap than a race stint. “I didn’t feel comfortable in the car today and it wasn’t much fun out there really,” he admitted after slipping from first to ninth by the chequered flag.

Lewis Hamilton – Hamilton was demoted to ninth by a gearbox change penalty, then puzzled by his car’s mid-race improvement in pace. From then on he went on the attack and came out on top of a battle with Webber to claim fifth.

Sauber

Nico Hulkenberg – There was little evidence of the progress Sauber thought they’d made in China. Hulkenberg suffered rapid degradation at every stint and unsuccessfully lobbied his team to put him on a four-stop strategy. “A difficult and frustrating weekend,” was his verdict.

Esteban Gutierrez – Carrying a five-place penalty into the weekend, Gutierrez failed to reach Q2 and lined up last on the grid. He picked up damage on the first lap and spent his race trying to catch Pic’s Caterham, which crossed the line half a second in front of him.

Force India

Paul di Resta – Both Force Indias took advantage of Hamilton and Webber’s grid penalties, so Di Resta headed Sutil on row three. He got ahead of Massa at the start, then passed Rosberg and by lap 11 he was in the lead of the race. He was the only driver besides Raikkonen to run a two-stop strategy, though he couldn’t keep either of the Lotuses behind, surrendering the final podium place to Grosjean.

Adrian Sutil – Pipped by Di Resta in qualifying, Sutil tangled with Massa on the first lap which ruined his race. He passed the delayed Ferrari on the penultimate lap for 13th.

Williams

Pastor Maldonado – Came home in front of his team mate for the first time this year but 20 seconds behind the points finishers as Williams continue to struggle.

Valtteri Bottas – Reached Q2 at the expense of his team mate after he was the first of the two to set times that were identical to a thousandths of a second. He started on the hard tyres and ran as high as fourth to begin with but had difficulty looking after his rear tyres and dropped back.

Toro Rosso

Jean-Eric Vergne – Tangled with Bottas at the start, then was hit by Van der Garde. He tried to carry on but the damage caused overheating and forced him to retire.

Daniel Ricciardo – Difficulty with tyre warm-up and braking pointed to a lack of downforce. Ricciardo’s best lap was slower than that of the Caterhams and Marussias, though he finished ahead of them in 16th.

Caterham

Charles Pic – Was the only Caterham driver to benefit from the team’s upgrades though it’s doubtful they accounted for all of his one second margin over Van der Garde in qualifying. Fell behind both Marussias at the start but overtook them and stayed there, and kept the delayed Gutierrez behind too.

Giedo van der Garde – Heikki Kovalainen drove his car in first practice which must have given him food for thought. Having started well he was helpless to avoid hitting Vergne. That forced an early pit stop, and another one later due to a delaminated tyre meant he made five visits to the pits.

Marussia

Jules Bianchi – Both Marussia drivers were unhappy with their car’s balance in Bahrain. Bianchi’s usually ample margin over his team mate in the race was reduced to 12 seconds as both had to make four pit stops.

Max Chilton – Kept Bianchi in sight early in the race before dropping back.

141 comments on “Vote for your 2013 Bahrain GP driver of the weekend”

+1
Agreed. Alonso of Kimi, though I voted for the Finn this time. He just impressed me the most this weekend. :)
The finger-boy with lady luck on his side, was left completely unchallenged in Bahrain. I see no reason at all to vote for him.

It’s incredibly reductive to state that Vettel’s victory was purely down to luck. Alonso running into problems and possibly missing out on victory does not mean that Vettel’s win was down to mere luck. He qualified well, made great passes on Alonso and Rosberg and commanded from the front. Quite like Alonso in China. Both were great drives and deserved victories. Neither were reliant on luck.

@vettel1 They must be swamped with all the double standards applied to Vettel lately! It’s easy to hate a winner, I was a Schumacher fan since the 90’s and have seen it all before…or maybe it’s an anti-German thing? :P

I’m an Alonso/Ferrari fan so I’m not biased for him, but you gotta give the man credit. He can race with the best of them. He’s so lucky he has all that talent, works hard and has a good team! ;)

@sgt-pepper He has such a huge advantage he’s driving on different tyres or driving in a different formula to everyone else. Right.

He had probably the best car on the day (although I think the Ferraris would have been quite close) and for that reason you think less of his victory? Saying that belittles Alonso’s victory in China as he similarly dominated there. If the Red Bull had twice the grip of the next best car then why wasn’t Webber on the podium?

It was a very good effort indeed, but I did think about it and really I don’t think having the DRS open would affect the car too much. Sure you’ve lost quite a significant amount of rear downforce, but the car is much faster in a straight line obviously and I have a feeling he only managed to maintain position because he had the dose the full way down every straight. Also, the fact the cars were laden with fuel probably helped offset some of the loss.

Again though a very good effort from Alonso – I immediately thought “well, that’s him gone!” when the camera changed from Alonso’s rear wing in the braking zone – I thought he’d just have gone straight on!

Alonso make to big mistakes on friday and saturday. And another big mistake (with his team) by go to race again with DRS enabled after his first pit sotp. How can you voted him “Best driver of the weekend”???

@kingshark – well he did spin in FP3 but it’s hardly what is being suggested as a “big mistake” – you could maybe argue he could’ve gone faster in qualifying but he was against Vettel so I hold nothing against him there.

The only other thing I can think of that wasn’t a team mistake was him making that slight error at turn 4 which allowed Vettel to pounce and do that great overtake, so I’d hardly say he made lots of ‘big mistakes’: even though I don’t like him that’s quite a gross exaggeration.

Alo done the fastest q1 time Kingshark so he did make a mistake if he was such a great qualifier like you think he should of got pole. L.Ham or Seb would have that’s for sure. Alo done his fast q1 time on hard’s beat the red bull’s who were on mediums so surely their was more pace, if Alo could Be ahead on hards why shouldn’t he on mediums.

(@jh1806)(@kingshark)
+1 to Alonso.
Although tempted to throw it at Kimi and Di Resta (was gutted he didn’t get on the podium, though Grosjean did drive a good race too).

Maybe I’m biased towards him because because his DRS was broken and it sent my heart fluttering watching real overtakes for the first time in years, but it was a truly stellar drive with one hand tied behind his back, again.

Yes, that was a remarkable performance from Vettel, even by his high standards. The moves that took him from third to first were very impressive, and further dispelled the myth that he can’t overtake. Once he was at the front, he was in a class of his own. He barely made it onto the TV feed after that, but watching his lap times on the timing screen was astonishing, and he even had pace to spare at the end after he had been asked to bring the car home safely.

Quite a few drivers deserve recognition for their performances – both Lotus drivers, di Resta and Alonso, to name a few – but Vettel really ought to win this.

@estesark – I forgot to mention the race craft part actually! That was my very first thought when he pulled those moves (and Brundle’s actually!) – he very sarcastically said on commentary something along the lines of “here’s the guy who can’t race overtaking again”.

I normally give it to Vettel on occasions similar to this, but I didn’t this time. Partly because there were many other superb performances, and partly because he said himself the car had incredible pace and it was easy.

@liambo Did you put his McLaren on par with Red Bull, Ferrari and the other McLaren on the hands of a world champion (yes, Button is a world champion, like it or not)? They are good ones, and Perez is starting to build up his name in F1. So I reaffirm what I wrote.

Kimi Raikkonen but only just. I felt that he managed his tyres and race very well. Vettel did a great job and I hope he wins but for me the way Kimi managed his race was very good. Di Resta did well too but not spectacular enough.

Kimi Räikkönen. Started from 8th, the dirty side of the grid, fell to 9th or 10th in the first laps, got overtaken by both McLarens, and still managed to get 2nd. Good drive from him. Lotus’ strategy has to be credited too though and their cars being kind to their tyres

For me it’s Sebastian Vettel. He made right moves at the beginning of the race, especially that one over Alonso, which looked quite impressive. He quickly disapared into horizon and from then on looked like a mirage for his rivals. Fastest lap was icing on the cake. You can’t demand more.

Sebastian Vettel: qualified very well (of course though second to Rosberg) and then swiftly took the lead before even the DRS was activated. From there, he managed the race and went completely unchallenged for position and in fact twice came out still in the lead after pitting I believe.

Honourable mentions go to Alonso and Perez but not actually Räikkönen I don’t think – he performed fairly poorly in qualifying by failing to replicate his Q2 time (which would’ve allowed him to start fourth and probably challenge harder for the win). So as a driver of the weekend no.

Also forgot to mention the Force India pairing (although can somebody clarify who was at fault with the Sutil collision?)! Grosjean though again under-performed in qualifying, so I’ve not considered him either.

Grosjean for me. He out-performed my expectations of him. Whilst some managed their tyres well, and others drove aggressively, he found the perfect middle-ground between the two, and it paid off big time: not the kind of things you’d have expected from him last year!

Voted for Vettel. If there is such thing as a perfect race, this was certainly it. He was faultless all the way to the finish line. Very impressive first laps as well, proving critics once more he is an exellent racing driver. Other drivers which would have been an option for me if Vettel hadn’t produced the kind of result he did were Alonso (for being quick all weekend) and Di Resta. For me Perez wouldn’t have made the cut, cause he actually hit his team mate. Neither would Raikkonen nor Grosjean, because I feel they aren’t getting everything out of the car at qualifying.

@me4me agreed on everything expect possibly the Perez mention – I don’t think it was anything major, just a small error which I don’t feel tainted his whole performance. I feel personally this is the Perez I always wanted to see – gutsy in wheel-to-wheel combat and reliving (to an extent) the race pace he had at Sauber, so good on him!

At the end of the day, things can go wrong, that’s part of racing. The people who build the cars and those who drive them work together as a unit, this unit is called the team. They share luck and mistakes alike.

That’s a very simplistic explanation that I don’t agree with. In Sepang, Alonso made a slight mistake and damaged his front wing (that’s one of the “things that can go wrong”, “part of racing” you were referring to). He couldn’t have known the condition of his wing because… well, he couldn’t see it from the cockpit. Also, due to the wet track, he wasn’t driving full speed therefore didn’t have a very good indication of whether or not the damage to the wing had significantly impacted the car’s driveability and downforce level.
His incompetent team, however, had a clear view of the damaged wing from F1’s television feed. His worthless team saw that the wing was hanging on by a single vertical support pillar. When drivers damage their wing and keep on driving it’s because the wing is still attached via both pillars. It’s a miracle the wing lasted that long. And yet somebody in the team made the call to stay out even longer. That was the team’s fault, not Alonso’s. Alonso knows this very well, he just won’t say it in public.
There’s definitely an “I” in “team”. In Ferrari’s case, I stands for incompetent. And I won’t change my mind even if Ferrari wins both titles this year.
Coming from a Ferrari fan.

Raikkonen fan but no way was he driver of the ‘weekend’. he was only good in the race and quali was poor. Vettel qualified on the front row and drove a flawless race and won so he is the driver of the weekend

I think he would’ve managed to steal the podium possibly had it not been for DRS – the art of defensive driving has just been killed by it! As a Scot and someone who actively loathes DRS, I found that to be the low point of the race Grosjean steaming by under DRS.

True. Even so, I reckon it was tyre wear that really hurt him – Grosjean went for a three stop strategy, and the Lotus is also the kindest to its tyres – too much for a Force India to overcome. His laptimes at the end were much slower than Romain, so even without DRS the Lotus would’ve passed him.

@fer-no65 – what I mean by “no point” was that the rate at which Grosjean was closing and the fact he had DRS made the overtake a formality. He had almost zero chance of keeping the position for more than a lap longer because of the DRS advantage, so he probably just conceded easily to bring home the 4th.

Good point with Webber though, maybe he could’ve afforded to take more life out of the tyres, but still I don’t think it would’ve mattered much in the end because of DRS.

Both Lotus drivers underperformed in quali but that doesn’t really affect my voting this time because they still managed to maximize the result in the race day despite their respective grid positions. The end result is what matters the most to me and I don’t think neither of them would have had the pace to challenge Vettel for the win even if they had started from better positions.

What makes Vettel’s result better though in my eyes is the margin he beat his team-mate, once again.

Kimi for me…great race…after 1st 8 laps…never thought he’d be fighting for a podium…fought well in the heat…2nd place is good considering he had allergic reaction just before the race..diresta and grosjean great as well..

I went for Hamilton. Endured a terrible preperation to the race having to deal with first the puncture, and then the five place grid penalty. Despite this he quietly went about making the most of the tools at hand and crafted a fantastic 5th place and a vital 10pts (finishing ahead of pole sitter Rosberg in the process).

Leaving McLaren was the best decision of Ham’s career thus far, he appears to have found himself and really looks happy and contented.

@hellotraverse – I completely forgot about Hamilton! He was very good as well, but I’ve gone for Vettel personally. Hamilton was slower than Rosberg in qualifying anyway remember so that’s enough to swing it for me.

@vettel1 but was Hamiltons poor quali down to a problem with the car after the P3 problem. We will probably find out in the next few days or weeks, but if it was then Hamiltons “forgettably brilliant” race will surely be worth many a vote.

Yes guys Hamilton was 30 secs slower than Vettel in 29 laps then the next half of the race was only 6 secs slower, which is a very good effort in the Merc which has fairly bad traction. Nico was great in qualifying but poor in the race even before his 4th stop he was only 2 secs ahead of Ham who started 9th. The good thing with Lewis is he can still improve imo with the Merc because I don’t think he is 100% yet, although he is certainly doing better than Nico only Malaysia as Ham been slower he was 6 secs infront in Aus befor Nico retired and in China he was doing much better. Vet for DOTW, I think Di Resta is close though.

Has to be Di Resta for me. Vettel did very well of course, but to an extent, it’s almost expected of him now. That by no means that it was any less impressive, but I found myself more impressed by Di Resta qualifying 5th and finishing 4th.

It was Alonso for me. He had to make an extra stop or two because of the wing problems and then drove almost the entire race with no DRS yet managed to hold on for points and even press people with healthy cars.

Lots of drivers were great this weekend. Perez (although he overstepped the mark on one occasion), Grosjean, Raikkonen (although both were let down by poor quali), Hamilton (a poor quali from him suggests he was more prepared for the race, which ended up showing, plus he bounced back well from a grid penalty and strangely slow first stint), Alonso and Di Resta. But I went for Vettel. I just wish we could have seen Alonso chasing him.

Didn’t think anyone’s race or weekend really stood out. Vettel got the holeshot, and sailed away. Kimi came back from a poor grid position, Grosjean was fairly quick, Di Resta was pretty good but faded, and everyone else was just kind of mediocre.

ive gone for lewis.his car was terrible in the race,he had problems in p3,and got a 5 place grid penalty.
but he still came through to get some solid points.plus he helped to make the race abit more enjoyable because of his battle with webber.

Can’t vote anyone but Vettel. What a great weekend. I was actually surprised to see him outqualify Alonso, I didn’t think Red Bull had the speed and, besides, he only had one shot in Q3.
His first few laps were just amazing. Alonso is one of the best drivers when it comes to lap 1, he is able to overtake people quite easily, I certainly didn’t expect Vettel to overtake him as soon as turn 5.

Very good weekend for Grosjean, Pic and Perez, too. I wanted to vote one of them, but Vettel was faultless.

By quite some margin: Sebastian Vettel. He nailed that (what at the time seemed like a ‘crucial’) pass on Alonso on the first lap, and shortly after that Rosberg. From that moment on he drove a smooth race, excellent drive.

Notable mentions: Paul di Resta drove very well, I’m afraid fourth just was all he could achieve. Also impressed by Hamilton, somehow finishing fifth!

I’d like to knowwhy people that voted for Alonso last week didn’t vote for Vettel today… I don’t know but in my opinion their races were quite similar, they passed the leader before the fifth lap and drove away from that point unchallenged because their main contenders had problems (Kimi in China and Alonso yesterday). I would even say that Vettel has a little more merit because he passed both Rosberg and Alonso without DRS.

Look at how tight the poll goes regarding third place: Alonso, Perez, Grosjean. And DiResta second.. Currently F1 is going to great times, having the champions and the new challengers running on quite similar machinery. Great days, we are lucky to see all of them.

Vettel this time. I voted for Alonso in China so I don’t see any reason not to vote for Vettel here, since he pretty much did the exact same thing, only on another track…

Notable mentions, in order:
– Alonso. Did a superb job out of dragging himself from last to 8th without DRS, but as I’ve mentioned before, he took too much of a chance by opening the wing again after it first got jammed. The second pit stop was avoidable. Still a solid drive.
– Di Resta. Third would have been a well deserved result after a very-composed weekend.
– Perez. Driver of the race, without doubt!
– Pic. I don’t know if it was the upgrades or something else, but we’ve seen a different Charles Pic in Bahrein.

And last but not least, five years too late (but better late than never), an honorary mention and a sincere hats-off for Takuma Sato.

I voted for Hamilton, purely because I had just finished watching his battle with Webber in the closing laps! Brave driving. I think it should go to Alonso really – back of the field to 8th place with no DRS is pretty impressive, even by his own high standards. Di Resta and Kimi also did great, as did Grosjean and Perez IMO.

How can you say that Grosjean has lost his edge after a great race this weekend.
Alos Maldonaldo has not lost his edge, he just has a very slow car, and he needs to have a good car to be getting the best out of it.

I went for di Resta, though I was very, very close to voting for Vettel who was supreme this weekend. di Resta impressed me no end, I had to go with him.

He out qualified Sutil, he made his 2 stop strategy work and very nearly managed to sneak onto the podium. If he did it would have been thoroughly well deserved. 4th was still a terrific result for Force India who continue to be the surprise package of the year for me. I thought they’d be nowhere after pre-season testing but they are putting Sauber, Toro Rosso and (particularly) Williams to shame.

Alonso’s recovery drive was alright but lets be honest, Vettel rarely had to use DRS all race either and he won!
Alonso gained most of his ground through strategy and I think he only passed Ricciardo and Perez. Maldonado went off ahead of him for his other place…

Vettel was amazing this weekend- his 2nd and 3rd stints were different gravy

I hate that shiver of guilt, betrayal and personal disgust I have just experienced when I voted for Sebastian Vettel, which is something I have never done before. There was no other choice though, because what we saw from Vettel was a masterclass in race management, but his attacks on Rosberg were so effective that he really did show his new racing ability which has just materialized from nowhere. For me, it was amongst Vettel’s top five drives, and right up there with Abu Dhabi ’13, Brazil ’13, Monza ’08 and Monaco ’11. It was certainly more of a champion’s drive than Malaysia, which was more a the spoilt brat’s drive, but I won’t go into that again, every single F1 Fanatic reader already knows my POV regarding that debacle!

There were quite a few drivers who I thought had a good weekend but in the end I gave it to Vettel as he just seemed to be in total control during the race, just like Alonso in the last Grand Prix.

The other drivers who stood out for me, in no particular order

Alonso – if it hadn’t been for his DRS problem I think he would have had a podium and maybe even have challenged Vettel for the win. Last year Ferrari didn’t have a quick car but didn’t make many mistakes which helped Alonso take the championship down to the wire, this year the car is more competitive but now they having other problems.

Perez – He was told by McLaren to be more aggressive and he was.

Raikkonen – A good race but hampered by a poor showing in qualifying, if he had qualified near the front as he did in China I think he could have had a chance at victory.

Grosjean – Like Perez he has not had a good start to the season but found his form again during the race.

Hmmm difficult one to choose this time but in the end went for Paul Di Resta for a well deserved 4th place, toyed with the idea of Alonso for his fight back after DRS issues and Perez for being – as requested by his team – more aggressive.